The present invention relates to a bicycle helmet face shield and to a method of attaching a bicycle helmet face shield to a bicycle helmet.
In the past, it has been common to provide helmets and face shields for motorcycles and more recently safety helmets for bicycle riders have become common. Safety helmets of this type are commonly molded with a hard plastic material having an inner close fitting foamed polymer liner. In case of an accident, the helmet is capable of withstanding the shock loads by the hard plastic shell of the helmet along with the resilience in the foam lining so that the force is more evenly spread over a wider area and dissipated by the foamed polymer to reduce the dangers of concussion to the biker. While helmets have been commonly provided with shields for motorcycle riders, bicycle helmets typically have not been provided with face shields and these helmets are designed differently from those provided for motorcycle users. It has also been common to make bicycle helmets ventilated to provide some cooling of the head. More recently, it has been suggested to provide face or eye shields for the bike rider. It has also been suggested to provide shields which allows the passage of air past the shield and through the ventilated helmet to continue the cooling.
Prior U.S. Patents which include ventilated helmets and which have face shields may be seen in the Adams, Sr. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,085, for a vented helmet and face shield in which the safety helmet has a plurality of air vents formed in the helmet and has a face shield with a plurality of air vents formed therein. In the Sundahl patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,700, a suction ventilated helmet for a cyclist is provided with a visor. The Flynn et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,598, provides a safety helmet which also has air vent apertures formed therein and includes a drop-down visor and shield. Other prior art patents which have various means of attaching visors or other accessories to headgear may be seen in the Ritchey et al. patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,174, for protective head gear which is for a head dress for health care professionals to prevent contact with contaminants but provides removable coverings which can be attached to the headgear. In the Moody patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,316, a sun visor with an eye shield is provided in which the eye shield can be attached to the visor with a single clip by inserting the visor into the clip. The Brown patent, U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,507, is a headwear accessory attachment in which a neck covering can be attached with VELCRO and clips to the back of a cap. In the Morin patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,615, a helmet has a withdrawable shield for a ski crash helmet.
The present invention deals with a bicycle helmet and especially to a face shield which may be attached to an existing bicycle helmet with an easy attachable universal strip which may be adhesively attached to the front of the helmet and has one or several slots formed in a resilient material in which at least two of the slots are formed parallel to each other so that the helmet shield can be press fitted into one or any of the other of the slots. An alternate embodiment attaches a curved piece of resilient material to the front crown or leading edge of a helmet for insertion of a shield thereinto.